Unfortunately there is also the risk that bystanders decide you have given your kids too much independence and call the police or otherwise harass you.
Lenore Skenazy had this happen to her when she allowed her son to take a subway by himself.
It sounds like you are interested in some ideas related to Free Range parenting; Let Grow might also be of interest.
I think OP did include that: “Get stopped by the police or others, who might think they’re too young to be out on their own.”
I found that reading Lenore Skenazy is good for having a properly-calibrated kidnapping risk assessment but potentially extremely bad for having a properly-calibrated “being hassled by police / CPS / busybodies / etc.” risk assessment. Ironically, it’s the same dynamic: she reports every time it happens anywhere, so you just get this idea that everybody everywhere is hassling kids playing outside without adult supervision, independently of how frequently that actually happens. (I don’t know with what frequency it actually happens.) (I stopped reading her blog many years ago.)
Unfortunately there is also the risk that bystanders decide you have given your kids too much independence and call the police or otherwise harass you. Lenore Skenazy had this happen to her when she allowed her son to take a subway by himself.
It sounds like you are interested in some ideas related to Free Range parenting; Let Grow might also be of interest.
I think OP did include that: “Get stopped by the police or others, who might think they’re too young to be out on their own.”
I found that reading Lenore Skenazy is good for having a properly-calibrated kidnapping risk assessment but potentially extremely bad for having a properly-calibrated “being hassled by police / CPS / busybodies / etc.” risk assessment. Ironically, it’s the same dynamic: she reports every time it happens anywhere, so you just get this idea that everybody everywhere is hassling kids playing outside without adult supervision, independently of how frequently that actually happens. (I don’t know with what frequency it actually happens.) (I stopped reading her blog many years ago.)